Honoré de Balzac was born May 20, 1799, at Tours, in France,
and died at Paris, Aug. 18, 1850. His early life was filled
with hard work and oppressed by poverty. He attained success
by the publication of "Les Derniers Chouans" in 1829, and he
soon established his fame as the leader of realistic fiction.
In spite of frequent coarseness, he stands for all time as a
great writer by reason of his powers of character analysis.
"Eugénie Grandet" is, justly, one of the most famous of
Balzac's novels. As a study of avarice, in the character of
old Grandet, it is superb, and the picture of manners in the
country town of Saumur is painted as only a supreme artist
like Balzac could paint it. The pathos of Eugénie's wasted
life, the long suffering of Mme. Grandet, the craft and
cunning of the Des Grassins and the Cruchots, the fidelity of
Nanon, and the frank egotism of Charles Grandet--all these
things combine to make the book a masterpiece of French
fiction. "Eugénie Grandet" was written in the full vigour of
Balzac's genius in 1833, and was published in the first volume
of "Scenes of Provincial Life" in 1834, and finally included
in the "Human Comedy" in 1843.
_I.--The Rich Miser of Saumur_
The town of Saumur is old-fashioned and in every way "provincial." Its
houses are dark within, its shops, undecorated, recall the workshops of
the Middle Ages. Its inhabitants gossip freely, according to the fashion
of country towns, and the arrival of a stranger in the town is an
important item of news. The trade of Saumur depends upon the vineyards
of the district. The prosperity of landowners, vinegrowers, coopers, and
innkeepers rises or falls according to whether the season is good or bad
for the grapes.
A certain house in Saumur, larger and more sombre than most, and once
the residence of nobility, belonged to M. Grandet.
This M. Grandet was a master cooper in 1789, a good man of business with
a remarkable head for accounts. He prospered in the Revolution, bought
the confiscated Church lands at a low price, married the daughter of a
wealthy timber merchant, was made mayor under the consulate, became
Monsieur Grandet when the empire was established, and every year grew
wealthier and more miserly.
In 1817 M. Grandet was 68, his wife 47, and their only child, Eugénie,
was 21.
A careful, cunning, silent man was M. Grandet, who loved his gold and to
get the better in a bargain beyond all else. He cultivated 100 acres of
vineyard, had thirteen little farms, an old abbey, and 127 acres of
grazing land, and owned the house he lived in. The town estimated old
Grandet's income to be five or six million francs, but only two people
were in a position to guess with any chance of probability, and these
were M. Cruchot the notary, and M. des Grassins the banker, and they
disclosed no secrets.
Both M. Cruchot and M. des Grassins were men of considerable importance
in Saumur, and enjoyed the right of entry to M. Grandet's house--a
privilege extended to only a very few of their neighbours.
There was rivalry between these two families of the Cruchots and Des
Grassins, rivalry for the hand of Grandet's daughter, Eugénie. Cruchot's
nephew was a rising lawyer, already, at the age of thirty-three, a
president of the court of first instance, and Cruchot's brother was an
abbé of Tours. The hopes of the Cruchots were centred on the successful
marriage of the nephew (who called himself Cruchot de Bonfons, after an
estate he had bought) with Grandet's heiress.
Mme. des Grassins was equally hopeful and indefatigable on behalf of her
son Adolphe.
The whole town knew of the struggle between these two families, and
watched it with interest. Would Mlle. Grandet marry M. Adolphe des
Grassins or M. le Président? There were others who declared the old
cooper was rich enough to marry his daughter to a peer in France.
With all his wealth and the fortune his wife brought him, M. Grandet
lived as meanly and cheaply as he could. His house was cold and dreary,
and his table was supplied with poultry, eggs, butter and corn by his
tenants. M. Grandet never paid visits or invited people to dinner.
One servant, Nanon, a big, strong woman of five feet eight inches, did
all the work of the house, the cooking and washing, the baking and
cleaning, and watched over her master's interests with an absolute
fidelity. The strength of Nanon appealed to M. Grandet when he was on
the lookout for a housekeeper before his marriage, and the girl, out of
work and wretched, had never lost her gratitude for having been taken
into his service. For twenty-eight years Nanon had worked early and late
for the Grandets, and on a yearly wage of seventy livres had accumulated
more money than any other servant in Saumur. She was one of the family,
spending her evenings in the sitting-room of her employers, where a
single candle was all that was allowed for illumination. M. Grandet also
decided that no fire must be lit in the sitting-room from April 1 to
October 31, and every morning he went into the kitchen and doled out the
bread, sugar, and other provisions for the day to Nanon, and candles to
his daughter.
As for Mme. Grandet, her gentleness and meekness could not stand up
against her husband's force of character. She had brought more than
300,000 francs to her husband, and yet had no money save an occasional
six francs for pocket-money, and the only certain source of income was
four or five louis which Grandet made the Belgian merchants, who bought
his wine, pay over and above the stipulated price. Often enough he would
borrow some of this money even. Mme. Grandet was too gentle to revolt,
but her pride forbade her ever asking a sou from her husband. With her
daughter she attended to the household linen, and found compensation for
the unhappiness of her lot in the consolations of religion, and also in
the company of Eugénie. It never occurred to M. Grandet that his wife
suffered, or had reason to suffer. He was making money; every year his
riches increased. He paid for sittings in church, and gave his daughter
five francs a month for a dress allowance. That his wife hardly ever
left the house except occasionally to go to church, that her dress was
invariably the same, and that she never asked him for anything, never
troubled M. Grandet. Avarice was his consuming passion, and it was
satisfactory to him that no one attempted to cross him.
Twice a year, on her birthday, and on the day of her patron saint,
Eugénie received some rare gold coin from her father, and then he would
take pleasure in looking at her store--for these coins were not to be
spent. Old M. Grandet liked to think that his daughter was learning to
appreciate gold, and that in giving her these precious coins he was not
parting with his money, but only putting it in another box.
_II.--Eugénie's Springtime of Love_
On Eugénie's twenty-third birthday, November, 1819, the three
Cruchots--the notary, the abbé, and the magistrate--and the three Des
Grassins--M. des Grassins, Mme. des Grassins, and their son Adolphe--
hastened to pay their respects to the heiress as soon as dinner was
over. Mr. Grandet, in honour of the occasion, lit a second candle in the
sitting-room. "It is Eugénie's birthday, and we must have an
illumination," he remarked. The Cruchots all brought handsome bouquets
of flowers for Eugénie, but their gifts were eclipsed by a showy workbox
fitted with trumpery gilded silver fittings, which Mme. des Grassins
presented, and which filled Eugénie with delight. "Adolphe brought it
from Paris," whispered Mme. des Grassins in the girl's ear. Old Grandet
quite understood that both families were in pursuit of his daughter for
the sake of her fortune, and made up his mind that neither of them
should have her.
They all sat down to play lotto at half-past eight, except old Grandet,
who never played any game. Just as Mme. Grandet had won a pool of
sixteen sous, a heavy knock at the front door startled everybody in the
room. Nanon took up one of the candles and went to the door, followed by
Grandet. Presently they returned with a young man, good-looking, and
fashionably dressed. This was Charles Grandet, the son of the old
cooper's brother, a merchant in Paris. The young man brought a good many
trunks, and while Nanon saw to the bestowal of his luggage, all the
lotto players looked at the visitor. Old Grandet took the only remaining
candle from the table to read a long letter which his nephew had
brought. Charles had set off from Paris at his father's bidding to pay a
visit to his uncle at Saumur. He was a dandy, and his appearance was in
striking contrast to the attire of the Cruchots and the Des Grassins.
Moreover, he already had had a love affair with a great lady whom he
called Annette, and he was a good shot. Altogether, Charles Grandet was
a vain and selfish youth, conscious of his superiority over the
unfashionable provincials of Saumur, but determined at all costs to
enjoy himself as best he could.
As for Eugénie, it seemed to her that she had never seen such a perfect
gentleman as this cousin from Paris, and, at the risk of incurring her
father's wrath, succeeded in persuading Nanon to do what she could to
make things comfortable for their guest in the cold and dreary house.
Nanon was milking the cow when Eugénie preferred her kindly and
considerate request, and the faithful serving-maid at once obligingly
promised to save a little cream from her master's supply of milk. The
Cruchots and Des Grassins retired discomfited before the presence of
Charles Grandet. The young Parisian, brought up in luxury by his father,
could not understand why he should have been sent to this outlandish
place, and he was the more mystified by his uncle telling him they would
talk over "important business" on the morrow. Then, indeed, in plain and
brutal words he learnt the contents of the fatal letter he had brought
from his father. It was twenty-three years since old Grandet had seen
his brother in Paris, but this brother had become a rich man, too; of
that old Grandet was aware. And now Victor-Ange-Guillaume Grandet wrote
to him from Paris, saying: "By the time that this letter is in your
hands, I shall cease to exist. The failure of my stockbroker and my
notary has ruined me, and while I owe nearly four million francs, my
assets are only a quarter of my debts. I cannot survive the disgrace of
bankruptcy. I know you cannot satisfy my creditors, but you can be a
father to my unhappy child, Charles, who is now alone in the world. Lay
everything before him, and tell him that in my work he can restore the
fortune he has lost. My failure is due neither to dishonesty nor to
carelessness, but to causes beyond my control."
Old Grandet told his nephew plainly that his father was dead, and even
showed him a paragraph already in the papers referring to the ruin and
suicide of the unhappy man--so quickly is such news spread abroad.
For the moment, his penniless state was nothing to the young man; the
loss of his father was the only grief.
Old Grandet let him alone, and in a day or two Charles gathered up
strength to face the situation.
Mme. Grandet and Eugénie were full of tender sympathy for the unhappy
young man, and this sympathy in Eugénie's case ripened into love. One
day, when Eugénie passed her cousin's chamber, the door stood ajar; she
thrust it open, and saw that Charles had fallen asleep in his chair. She
entered and found out from a letter her cousin had written to Annette,
which she read as it lay on the table, that he was in want of money--for
old Grandet was resolved to do nothing for his nephew beyond paying his
passage to Nantes. The next night she brought him all her store of gold
coins, worth six thousand francs. Her confidence and devoted affection
touched Charles deeply. He accepted the money, and in return gave into
her keeping a small leather box containing portraits of his father and
mother, richly set in gold. Eugénie promised to guard this box until he
returned.
For it was decided that Charles Grandet must go to the Indies to seek
his fortune. He sold his jewels and finery, and paid his personal debts
in Paris, and waited on at Saumur till the ship should be ready to sail
for Nantes.
And in those few weeks came the springtime of love for Eugénie.
Old Grandet was too busy to trouble about his nephew, who was so shortly
to be got rid of, and both Nanon and Mme. Grandet liked and pities the
young man.
Charles Grandet, on his side, was conscious that his Parisian friends
would not have shown him a like kindness, and the purity and truth of
Eugénie's love were something he had not hitherto experienced.
The cousins would snatch a few moments together in the early morning,
and once, only a few days before his departure, they met in the long,
dark passage at the foot of the staircase. "Dear cousin, I cannot expect
to return for many years," Charles said sadly. "We must not consider
ourselves bound in any way."
"You love me?" was all Eugénie asked. And on his reply, she added: "Then
I will wait for you, Charles."
Presently his arms were round her waist. Eugénie made no resistance,
and, pressed to his heart, received her lover's kiss.
"Dear Eugénie, a cousin is better than a brother; he can marry you,"
said Charles.
Thus the lovers vowed themselves to each other. Then came the terrible
hour of parting, and Charles Grandet sailed from Nantes for the Indies;
and the old house at Saumur suddenly seemed to Eugénie to have become
very empty and bare indeed.
_III.--M. Grandet's Discovery_
Grandet, on the advice of M. Cruchot, the notary, saved the honour of
his dead brother. There was no act of bankruptcy. M. Cruchot, to gain
favour with old Grandet, proposed to go to Paris to look after the dead
man's affairs, but suggested the payment of expenses. It was M. des
Grassins, however, who went to Paris, for he undertook to make no
charge; and the banker not only attended to Guillaume Grandet's
creditors, but stayed on in Paris--having been made a deputy--and fell
in love with an actress. Adolphe joined his father, and achieved an
equally unpleasant reputation.
The property of Guillaume Grandet realised enough money to pay the
creditors a dividend of 47 per cent. They agreed that they would
deposit, upon certain conditions, their bills with an accredited notary,
and each one said to himself that Grandet of Saumur would pay.
Grandet of Saumur, however, did not pay. Endless delays were
forthcoming, and Des Grassins was always holding out promises that were
not fulfilled.
As years went by some of the creditors gave up all hope of payment,
others died; till at the end of five years the deficit stood at
1,200,000 francs.
In the meantime, a terrible blow had fallen on Mine. Grandet. On January
1, 1820, old Grandet, according to his wont, presented his daughter with
a gold coin, and asked to see her store of gold pieces.
All Eugénie would tell him was that her money was gone. In vain the old
man stormed. Eugénie kept on saying: "I am of age; the money was mine."
Grandet raved at his wife, who, weary and ill, gave him no satisfaction.
In fact, Mine. Grandet's character had become stronger through her
daughter's trouble, and she refused to support her husband's angry
demands.
Then old Grandet ordered Eugénie to retire to her own apartment. "Do you
hear what I say? Go!" he shouted.
Soon all the town knew that Eugénie was a prisoner in her own room,
seeing no one but her mother and old Nanon; and public opinion, knowing
nothing of the cause of the quarrel, blamed the old cooper. For six
months this state of things lasted, and Mine. Grandet's illness became
steadily worse. M. Cruchot, the notary, warned old Grandet that, in the
event of his wife's death, he would have to give an account to Eugénie
of her mother's share in the joint estate; and that Eugénie could then,
if she chose, demand her mother's fortune, to which she would be
entitled.
This seriously alarmed the avaricious old cooper, and he made up his
mind to a reconciliation, for his wife assured him she would never get
better while Eugénie was treated so badly. Eugénie and her mother were
talking of Charles, from whom no letter had come, and getting what
pleasure they could from looking at the portraits of his parents, when
old Grandet burst into the room. Catching sight of the gold fittings, he
snatched up the dressing-case, and would have wrenched off the precious
metal. "Father, father," Eugénie called out, "this case is not yours; it
is not mine, it is a sacred trust! It belongs to my unhappy cousin. Do
not pull it to pieces!"
Old Grandet took no notice.
"Oh, have pity; you are killing me!" said the mother.
Eugénie caught up a knife, and her cry brought Nanon on the scene.
"Father, if you cut away a single piece of gold, I shall stab myself.
You are killing my mother, and you will kill me, too."
Old Grandet for once was frightened. He tried to make it up with his
wife, he kissed Eugénie, and even promised that Eugénie should marry her
cousin if she wanted to.
Mme. Grandet lingered till October, and then died. "There is no
happiness to be had except in heaven; some day you will understand
that," she said to her daughter just before she passed away.
M. Cruchot was called in after Mine. Grandet's death, and in his
presence Eugénie agreed to sign a deed renouncing her claim to her
mother's fortune while her father lived. She signed it without making
any objection, to old Grandet's great relief, and he promised to allow
her 100 francs a month. But the old man himself was failing. Bit by bit
he relinquished his many activities, but lived on till seven years had
passed. Then he died, his eyes kindling at the end at the sight of the
priest's sacred vessels of silver. His brother's creditors were still
unpaid. Eugénie was informed by M. Cruchot that her property amounted to
17,000,000 francs. "Where can my cousin be?" she asked herself. "If only
we knew where the young gentleman was, I would set off myself and find
him," Nanon said to her. The poor heiress was very lonely. The faithful
Nanon, now fifty-nine, married Antoine Cornoiller, the bailiff of the
estates, and these two, who had known one another for years, lived in
the house.
The Cruchots still hoped to marry M. le Président to Eugénie, and every
birthday the magistrate brought a handsome bouquet. But the heart of
Eugénie remained steadfast to her cousin.
"Ah, Nanon," she would say, "why has he never written to me once all
these years?"
Mme. des Grassins, unwilling to see the triumph of her old rivals, the
Cruchots, went about saying that the heiress of the Grandet millions
would marry a peer of France rather than a magistrate. Eugénie, however,
thought neither of the peer nor of the magistrate. She gave away
enormous sums in charity, and lived on quietly in the dreary old house.
Her wealth brought her no comfort, her only treasures were the two
portraits left in her charge. Yet she went on loving, and believed
herself loved in return.
_IV.--The Honour of the Grandets_
Charles Grandet, in the course of eight years, met with considerable
success in his trading ventures. He saw very quickly that the way to
make money in the tropics, as in Europe, was to go in for buying and
selling men, and so he plunged into the slave trade of Africa, and under
the name of Carl Shepherd was known in the East Indies, in the United
States, and on the African coasts. His plan was to get rich as speedily
as possible, and then return to Paris and live respected. For a
time--that is, on his first voyage--the thought of Eugénie gave him
infinite pleasure; but soon all recollection of Saumur was blotted out,
and his cousin became merely a person to whom he owed 6,000 francs.
In 1827, Charles returned to Bordeaux with 1,900,000 francs in gold
dust. On board the ship he became very intimate with the d'Aubrions, an
old aristocratic but impoverished family. Mme. d'Aubrion was anxious to
secure Charles Grandet for her only daughter, and they all travelled to
Paris together. Mme. d'Aubrion pointed out to Grandet that her influence
would get him a court appointment, with title of Comte d'Aubrion; and
Annette, with whom Grandet took counsel, approved the alliance.
Des Grassins, hearing of the wanderer's return, called, and, anxious to
get some remuneration for all the trouble he had taken, explained that
300,000 francs were still owing to his father's creditors. But Charles
Grandet answered coolly that he had nothing to do with his father's
debts.
Des Grassins, however, wrote to his wife that he would yet make the dead
Guillaume Grandet a bankrupt, and that would stop the marriage, and Mme.
des Grassins showed the letter to Eugénie.
Eugénie had already heard from her cousin. Charles Grandet sent a cheque
for 8,000 francs, asked for the return of his dressing-case, and
casually mentioned that he was going to make a brilliant marriage with
Mlle. d'Aubrion, for whom he admitted he had not the slightest
affection.
This was the shipwreck of all Eugénie's hopes--the utter and complete
ruin.
"My mother was right," she said, weeping. "To suffer, and then die--that
is our lot!"
That same evening when M. Cruchot de Bonfons, the magistrate, called on
Eugénie, she promised to marry him on condition that he claimed none of
the rights of marriage over her, and that he would immediately go and
settle all her uncle's creditors in full.
M. de Bonfons, only too thankful to win the heiress of the Grandet
millions on any terms, agreed, and set off at once for Paris with a
cheque for 1,500,000 francs. He carried a letter from Eugénie to Charles
Grandet, a letter that contained no word of reproach, but announced the
full discharge of his father's debts.
Charles was astonished to hear from M. de Bonfons of his forthcoming
marriage with Eugénie, and he was dumfounded when the president told him
that Mlle. Grandet possessed 17,000,000 francs.
Mme. d'Aubrion interrupted the interview; her husband's objection to
Grandet's marriage with his daughter was removed with the payment of the
long-standing creditors and the restoration of the family honour of the
Grandets.
M. de Bonfons, who now dropped the name of Cruchot, married Eugénie, and
shortly afterwards was made Councillor to the Court Royal at Angers. His
loyalty to the government was rewarded with further office. M. de
Bonfons became deputy of Saumur; and then, dreaming of higher honours,
perhaps a peerage, he died.
M. de Bonfons always respected his wife's request that they should live
apart; with remarkable cunning he had drafted the marriage contract, in
which, "In case there was no issue of the marriage, husband and wife
bequeathed to each other all their property, without exception or
reservation." Death disappointed his schemes. Mme. de Bonfons was left a
widow three years after marriage, with an income of 800,000 livres.
She is a beautiful woman still, but pale and sorrowful. In spite of her
income she lives on in the old house, and cold and sunless it bears a
likeness to her own life. Spending little on herself, Mme. de Bonfons
gives away large sums in succouring the unfortunate; but she is very
lonely--without husband, children, or kindred. She dwells in the world,
but is not of it.
* * * * *